"This is the baseball."

"It's tough to get a good read. But I think if I brought him a chair, he'd sit."

Tonight’s blog entry goes out to Progressive Field press box attendant John “Popper” Krepop, who replaced my busted seat in the box with the Cadillac of work chairs — a cloth swivel chair with reclining capabilities. This is pretty sweet. All that’s missing is an attached mini-fridge full of Schlitzes.

If I nod off tonight, it’s all Popper’s fault. But this chair will certainly prove its worth right away, because we’ll be locked in for four Tribe games in the next 45 hours. Get comfortable.

EXCRUCIATING MINUTIAE OF THE DAY…

The trappings of Twitter may have gotten the best of David Huff this afternoon. It appears the Indians told Huff he will be making spot start against the Tigers on Sunday (pushing Justin Masterson from Sunday to Tuesday, with the rotation getting reorganized after Thursday’s off day). The Indians then instructed Huff to keep this news under wraps. But Huff’s Twitter feed (@dhuff11) announced, “Just got called up for a spot start Sunday against the Detriot [sic] Tigers at 1 pm EST. See you there!!” UPDATE:Huff now claims, according to The Plain Dealer, that he’s not the one who sent that tweet. But that was definitely his account. I’m told his Twitter account was linked to his Facebook account, which has multiple administrators. Could be that one of those administrators received this info and sent it out prematurely.

When asked about the tweet, Manny Acta said the Indians were still determining Sunday’s starter and that Huff is a candidate. Within an hour of sending the tweet, Huff had deleted it and deactivated his account. Pitching coach Tim Belcher did not sound thrilled about the development and just told me Huff’s callup “may or may not happen” now. There’s a lesson to be learned here, and the lesson is as follows: Twitter is awesome.

This is as good a time as any to remind you to follow me on Twitter @castrovince. The minutiae flows freely there, as well.

By the way, whoever makes that start Sunday will only be here for the day. “Unless they throw a perfect game,” Acta said. So if you were angling to get a look at Carlos Carrasco, just know it would have been a short look anyway. Carrasco will join this team at some point in the second half. He tossed seven innings and allowed just one unearned run on two hits with six strikeouts and a walk in a win over Norfolk on Thursday. Obviously, the Indians won’t go with him on short rest.

Sunday is Josh Tomlin’s turn in the Columbus rotation, and he is also firmly on the Tribe’s radar. But he’s not on the 40-man. So, long story short and tweet or no tweet, it still appears likely Huff will get the nod.

A little Tribe trivia for you, courtesy of home clubhouse manager Tony Amato. Ridiculously and inexplicably, five Indians were named to the 2004 AL All-Star team. Name them. (I’ll post the answer below.)

It’s sounding more and more like Shin-Soo Choo will be back with the Indians soon, perhaps even by the end of next week. Choo took indoor batting practice today and had no setbacks. Acta said Choo likely won’t need to go out on a Minor League rehab assignment. So if this progress keeps up, a week or so of BP ought to be enough to deem Choo ready to return from the sprained right thumb.

Choo spent some time in the stands before tonight’s game, shaking hands, kissing babies and handing out “Choo’s Crew” T-shirts. Nice touch. Choo, though, declined the option of sitting in the right-field stands for an inning. He said he wanted to be with his teammates in the dugout.

Asdrubal Cabrera also figures to be back soon. He’s logged 10 at-bats on his rehab assignment this week, and could return to the Tribe somewhere around the 30 at-bat mark, if not sooner. He was 2-for-4 with a double in his first game with Akron last night, playing shortstop, and he’ll be at DH tonight.

The Indians have the second-most homers in the Majors from the No. 2 spot of the lineup, with 15.

The Tribe has the youngest active and 40-man roster in the big leagues.

Luis Valbuena is batting .344 (21-for-61) in 16 games with Columbus. He’s split his time between short, second and third.

In case you missed it, here’s the latest Indians Inbox. Topics include the mysterious rise of Jared Goedert, Kerry Wood trade banter, the future infield alignment and much more.

Tribe blogger Steve Buffum (linked on the right-hand side of this page under “The B-List”) sent me a copy of his 2010 Trade Deadline Primer, which is available for download at this link. It’s a fun, irreverent read and a fine summation of what’s transpired thus far this season and where the Indians go from here. Check it out for yourself.

With the second half set to begin, I thought I’d take a look at Baseball Prospectus’ latest playoff odds report for the AL Central. The Indians have a 0.005 chance of winning the division and a 0.00005 chance of claiming the Wild Card. The White Sox have a 47.2 chance of winning the Central, while the Tigers are at 31.2 percent and the Twins are at 21.2.

Love the dude wearing the “Quitness” shirt on the field during the anthem tonight. Well done.

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5 Comments

“Huff now claims, according to The Plain Dealer, that he’s not the one who sent that tweet. But that was definitely his account.”

Are you sure someone maybe close to him didn’t hack him. Not long after he got hit in the head I checked his twitter account and it said that the page couldn’t be found, I figured it might be an error, but after a week or so still the samething.

I don’t know if you can take it offline like that but if he did that, and someone did hack him that could explain it. As to then how would they know if they were close to him, (bet their not now) that would explain it.

It could have been him, but I don’t see him as the type who would tell the world when told to not tell anyone. Either that or he wrote it up, left the computer and someone he knew came along and thought it would be cool to hit to post it…. I don’t know but I just wanted to let you know what I knew about his account.

I don’t think it changed anything, given that Germano is making a spot start for Columbus tonight. It would appear Huff is still getting the call.
You know, it’s not just that Santana guns people down, but it’s that he seems to do it so effortlessly.
Donald has gotten some well deserved grief for his defense at short, but I still find him an interesting prospect. He’s hitting rather consistently and getting on base. I realize Nix has done well for us going into the second half, but if it were up to me I’d start Donald at 2B when Cabrera returns; Nix is not a part of the future of this team.
Those numbers by Valbuena are encouraging, too, so we could see a nice battle in the future.
Nice to see Marte take advantage of his start.

Yeah, I doubt Nix can keep the hits coming. Everyone got so excited by the HRs but Nix has hit for power in the past, his problem has been staying above .200. Second base is one crowded position full of guys who can destroy AAA pitching, Nix, and then Valbuena/Rodriguez/Phelps, 3 guys who probably have no future in Cleveland as long as Kipnis pans out. Valbuena: 1.037 OPS, Rodriguez: .940, Phelps: 1.056 … More evidence that Toregas is actually better than Marson: Toregas has as many HRs as Marson in Columbus in 9 at bats … Jordan Brown and Goedert both homered again today Columbus. I feel good about a future without Peralta and Kearns. I feel fantastic about a future without Kerry Wood. Stowell still seems to need a challenge, and Judy, Todd and Pestano have all been very good in Columbus lately. I have to say, there’s no reason to have Jensen Lewis pitch in Cleveland again. They might as well release him, or trade him, he can dominate AAA but is average at best in the majors. I’d put all 4 of the above mentioned guys above Lewis in the right-handed reliever depth chart. Not sure what they’re waiting on with Wood. They’re not going to get anything for him now or a month from now, but someone like the Phillies might want to give him a shot and he’s just hurting development in Cleveland.

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